


Impassable Guards

by RunSquidling



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Dark Magic, Dementors, Gen, Magical Culture, Research, Science, Squibs, evil research, exploring how magic works, how dementors came to be, magical invention, magical research, why azkaban is the only place that has them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-09
Updated: 2017-03-09
Packaged: 2018-10-01 15:56:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10193450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunSquidling/pseuds/RunSquidling
Summary: Dementors don't make sense as naturally-occurring dark creatures. This is the research journal of the man who made them.





	

July 17th, 1957  
I’ve almost done it. I’ve managed to extract the soul—make them hungry for new ones, you know, though they’d never attach—but it’s harder to keep them alive after that. They keep wasting away, or else shrivel under subsequent spells. Less resistant to corrosive magic without a soul, you know. I’ve submitted a paper on the subject to the Journal of Magical Theory and Innovation. I expect that it’ll be accepted. It’s quite genius.

 

July 29th, 1957  
I’m having great success with one female, who was Sally Strunket. A squib. Found her in an institution—her family was all too willing to sign her off to me, when I told them there would be no charge. They haven’t written. Sally isn’t disappointed. She doesn’t remember them.

It works best with non-magical people. Easier to separate the soul—it has nothing to fight back with, see. I would use Muggles, easier to get a hold of, but the Ministry might shut down my project. It’s all right. There’s plenty of unwanted squibs around.

 

August 3rd, 1957  
Sally has begun guarding. Old keys, scraps of paper—there’s a little mouse that lives in her cell, that she’s made a nest for and won’t let leave. Very promising. Two others are guarding as well, a male and another female. All were parents. Their children were taken away from them, of course, when their families got sick of caring for squibs. I’ve terminated the others. Non-parents just never start guarding, no matter how long I wait.

 

October 11th, 1957  
It’s a combination potion and curse that’s the key, I’m sure of it. I’ve got the potion right; there are side effects, but nothing unacceptable. They’re rather horrifying when you’re not expecting them. It grows a film over their eyes and depilates their entire bodies, eyelashes even, and it destroys their mouths. Their teeth fall out and their lips tighten into ruined circles, cracked and wrinkled like the Tartarus pit. But why bother trying to eliminate those effects? They aren’t meant to be attractive. Just to guard.

It’s the curse I haven’t got yet. It’s a variation of the euphoria charms, the strongest ones, but it’s so hard to make charms into curses. And the potion reacts with charms. Killed the male. I’m looking for a new one, but squib fathers are hard to come by. Understandable. What kind of a witch would breed with a squib? Worse than those sluts who marry Muggles. I would never do it, I’ll tell you that. Not even for my work.

 

December 12th, 1957  
They rejected my paper. Said it was “dark”, they’re not interested in anything to do with manipulating souls. They need to brush up on their reading comprehension. It was only a theory paper.

That journal was rubbish anyway. They’ll see, when I’m done. They’ll see that they made a mistake.

 

December 15th, 1957  
The ministry found out about the… practical parts of my research, and pulled my funding. I’m going to have to stop researching to hunt for private funding.

If I could afford one, I’d hire an assistant.

 

November 23rd, 1958  
I should have done this in the first place. Azkaban is very interested in soulless, impassable guards, and they have no problem with practical experimentation. No problem at all. 

 

February 28th, 1959  
I’ve done it. It worked. 

 

March 1st, 1959  
I was right, it was the euphoria curse; I just had to angle my wand down slightly, in the superior position, and pull it back at the last second--tough trick, that. If you do it too early, the curse doesn’t hold; too late, and it goes back to being a charm. Took me this long to get it right, aside from the weeks I spent doing other things entirely because I thought I was wrong. But I wasn’t. I never am, really. 

Anyway, you pull it back to retract the last moments of the charm, so that euphoria can float to them, but can never quite make it inside. It dissipates just as it touches their lips. When I go near her cage, she tries so hard, sucking all the joy out of me, but I can see it, her own pain--she can never swallow it. Both of them, they’re so hungry for joy.

As soon as I find a male, I can breed them. Then Azkaban will pay me handsomely for my efforts. I’ve decided to call them Dementors. It’s sufficiently frightening. That’s what people become when you frighten them enough, you know. Demented.

 

March 3rd, 1959  
Sally’s mouse died. She was destroyed; she can no longer cry, but pain seeped off her in waves. Visible ones. It was a fog. Filled the whole cell, and she wouldn’t let me near. This is perfect. This is so much better than I could have hoped. Azkaban is thrilled. Nobody will ever escape again. They won’t have the will to try.


End file.
